My grandfather fought in the trenches.

Dad narrowly escaped death from a Luftwaffe bomb.

We are right to honour the memory of our war dead and veterans’ sacrifice on Remembrance Day. So why make VE Day another Remembrance Day?

Amid wall-to-wall military rhetoric from the Government, the stand-out statement is from Sir Andrew Gregory, CEO of SSAFA, the armed forces charity, hitting a very different note.

The job of VE Day, he says, is to educate, so world war never happens again.

Winston Churchill said the key to peace was European unity – and so it has proved.

While church bells are Ringing Out for Peace, I and fellow members of the European Movement will be celebrating that on Friday.

Prosperity underpins peace. Economic catastrophe opened the door to Hitler.

Coronavirus is already costing jobs. Lower tax-takes and colossal government debt threaten public services and social cohesion.

Oxfordshire’s least advantaged neighbourhoods are already impacted.

Heroes who fought Nazism across Europe are best honoured by European solidarity, in crisis above all.

Keeping the UK in a leadership role and defending jobs and services by staying close to our neighbours and biggest customers post-Brexit and post-Covid19 should be our contribution.

A UK-EU deal by end-June is unachievable. Common-sense says stop the clock and extend the transition to allow a deal that’s a VE win for ordinary people and a pledge towards another 75 of peace and freedom.

GRAHAM JONES

Chair, Oxford Region branch, European Movement UK

James Street

Oxford

The other day, I found a letter from my Grandmother addressed to my father who was in the RASC stationed in Haifa, Palestine dated 23 January 1922, postmarked 24 January 1922 with a Haifa postmark on the back of the envelope dated 9 February 1922. I quote from the letter:

“I have not been able to go out yet, as I have been in bed with the flue for more than a week, and cant do anything yet. There is a lot of it about. Mrs Bolton at the common died, and was buried last Tuesday, only ill a day or two.”

My Grandmother died on 13 March 1922 at the age of 52 years from “Valvular disease of the Heart by Dropsy”, as far as I can read it.

She was living in Observatory Street, Oxford at the time

Does this sound presently familiar?

RICHARD BROWN

Eynsham Road

Botley

What a shocking article on Thursday, April 30th. about the trees being cut down at the top end of Headley Way, before anyone had any idea it was to happen.

Congratulations to Ben Pritchard for bringing this to the notice of us all, and standing up against this Draconian idea of the Council.

The work done to create these Cycle paths in some cases is very close to the trees, but there is grass on the other side nearer to the road,and the trees are in blossom now,

so they cannot be so badly damaged they need to be cut down. Anyway no trees or hedges should be cut at this time of the year, because of the birds nesting.

How dare these faceless people, who don’t even live in our area, make these decisions, or even have the courtesy to tell us. It just started to happen.

These trees give us the oxygen to help us breathe, against the traffic on this busy road. We have lost a lot of trees further down with the road widening, we don’t want to lose more.

ALISON B PARKINSON

Derwent Ave

Oxford